umm...where's the mousetrap?

[dkhedmo]

Last week, the kids and I saw a mouse, in the house. It was an afternoon, and the mouse was quite busy and I was able to identify its route and what I think was the entry pretty easily. (I saw it in the evenings a couple of times as well.)

The mister and I decided to try to catch it first, then seal up suspected entry point. (Some difficulties will be involved there, due to anomalies of plumbing and electricity in our 50's slab ranch...) So I perused the selection of pest control devices at the grocery store, bought the biggest box, which used the word "arsenal" and contained a variety of traps.

Yesterday afternoon the mister placed a snap trap at suspected entry, a poison trap in the laundry/pantry and two glue traps, one between fridge/wall and one at the back of the stove. All areas we have seen the mouse travel, but inaccessible to the kids (6.5 and 2.5). Checked all the traps before bed, nothing. Checked the traps this morning before the kids got up - the glue trap next to the fridge is missing. Gone. Not behind the fridge, and I'm reasonably certain not under, I checked as best I could. Is it likely the mouse was only partially trapped and ran off with it somewhere? I'm stumped!

For those of you who have dealt with an uninvited rodent, what wisdom do you have to impart?

-Karen-

[Doug Miller]

Use snap traps only. You just discovered one reason why non-lethal traps are a poor idea. Understand this: mice don't belong in human habitations. They carry disease. They carry insects that carry disease. They damage property. You need to get rid of them permanently. That means killling them, and killling them quickly.

The best thing in my experience is snap traps -- lots of them -- baited with raisins. Forget cheese; that's a comic-book idea. Many people advocate peanut butter, but mice can lick that off of a trap without springing it. Use a nice fresh raisin. Smoosh it down hard onto the bait pan, and there's _no_way_ they can get it off without springing the trap.

[hallerb]

buy a live box mouse trap put right alongside wall. mice smell food walk in and are trapped till you take it a ways away and open, dont worry they want nothing to do and will run away!

No pain, humane, good example for kids on how to treat wildlife, no hazard to kids.... cheap 15 bucks reusable..kinda interesting too.

emptied my home once of over 36 mice.

Empty mice twice daily and seal up all openings cement or metal chips work well!

[Harry K]

I used glue traps once. Never again. If any commercial business deserves getting charged with animal cruelty, that manufacturer should be. It results in either a very slow painful death (read at least a day) or you have kill the mouse by smashing it with something.

Harry K

[Toller]

Never heard of raisins; how do they keep? I used to use cheese, but that dries out pretty quickly. PB is better, but as you say, they manage to eat it without tripping the traps. Over the winter I don't see the traps for a month or two at a time, so this is an issue.

OP - Where my dog might get at it, I use this plastic trap that is a square tube with a bend in it. When the mouse enters to get the treat he tips the tube, which allows the door to close. It works pretty good, but not as well as snap traps. I did have one chew its way out; must have been Mighty Mouse.

[Doug Miller]

I presume you mean you never heard of using raisins to bait mousetraps...

How long they keep on the traps doesn't matter: mice love them, and they don't stay there long enough to dry out. When the raisins go untouched for two nights in a row, you've gotten all the mice IME.

That's why I use raisins. :-)

You need to check the traps more often than that, regardless of what bait you're using -- at least once a day. If you can't or won't do that, you're probably better off setting poison.

[Doug Miller]

No, they won't -- they'll run *back*.

Mice aren't "wildlife" -- they're vermin.

Doubt that --- you probably trapped the same three mice a dozen times.

Works even better with snap traps -- that way, you trap each mouse only once.

[Doug Miller]

Amen! The quick death dealt by a snap trap is far more humane.

[HeyBub]

Did you just have a cold snap? Field mice get cold too and look for warm places. They'd RATHER be in the field, but...

Anyway, think cat, your ecologically-friendly rodent control method.

"Unfortunately, Towser, the famous Glenturret [distillery, Scotland] cat is no longer resident in the still house. During her long life, Towser broke records with her hunting prowess, notching up 28,899 mice in her 24 years [plus a few rats and an occassional rabbit]. She is even immortalised in the Guinness Book of Records. Visitors can now admire her statue, which was unveiled in 1995."

[Steve B]

Google Tin Cat by Victor. Simple. Easy. Safe. Clean. Live trap.

[Old Fangled]

dkhedmo wrote in news:8p3%g.13847$Y24.13587 @newsread4.news.pas.earthlink.net:

These traps are great:

Bait it with peanut butter -- the bait is completely surrounded by the trip paddle, so he can't lick off the bait without setting off the trap.

[Lawrence]

I have a lot of experience with mice and have trapped hundreds. Trapping is OK but just OK. The snap traps have to be checked every day and even twice a day. The problem I had with trapping was firstly the work involved. You have to set a large number of traps to do a good job and then yu have to constantly checked them. Also, putting food out along your baseboard can attract more mice. There are more mice willing to take the place of the one(s) you trapped. the traps are not so humane either. many times I have heard a trap snap only to find that the mouse just had his tail or leg caught in the trap. Then you have to stomp them or kill with a broomstick which is unpleasand.

Sadly, poison is the method of choice for killing mice. It is more effective than any other method. Of course you have to be careful around children and pets but that should not prevent you from using poison, the most effective killer there is. Poison will make some people unhappy and even angry. It is mean, plain mean. That is why it works.

Lawrence

[jah213]

I'm about as warm 'n' fuzzy as it's possible to be when it comes to animals. Even bugs that enter my house usually get a trip outside in a jelly jar rather than a swat. When it comes to mice, I feel bad when the cats get one, and I feel bad when a snap trap does. However, I remain convinced that I'd feel worse about a case of, oh, Hantavirus or some other rodent-borne disease. Sorry you decided to come in my house, Mickey; it's the worst, and last, decision you'll ever make.

Jo Ann

Doug Miller wrote:

[Steve Barker LT]

Why in the world do you want to teach someone to be "humane" to a mouse!?!? They're not HUMAN!!! They need to be kilt. Kilt DEAD. What are you going to do with them? Take them outside and let them loose?? No wonder you caught 36. There was only about 3 actual mice you caught over and over. LMAO!!! Humane! to mice. LOL!

[PV]

Poisoned grain in areas not accessible to pets or children. Snap traps baited with pistachio nut, wedge it hard on the bait bar ad they cannot get it off without snapping the trap. We spotted a location where they were stopping to eat (droppings and urine stains on a pile of clean laundry) and laid a trap there, caught two a day until they were no more!

Glue traps are essentially useless as we watched one critter skitter across the carpet with one foot stuck but he was able to keep moving.

PV

[Steve B]

My sediments exactly! You got the whole forest and woods. But no, you want to come into my house and do your doodoo all over the place. Chew into a

10# sack of food for a few bites. Do all sorts of damage.

I use a Tin Cat. When I check them, I just toss them into a 5 gallon pail of water and come back in ten minutes. You got millions of acres, and I have this little postage stamp of property.

Show some respect!

Steve

[Cheri]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a Tin Cat Steve? Is it like one of those mousetraps where they get in, but can't get out?

Cheri

[meow]

Cats and Titties get cold too. Give one a home and no more mousies....

MEOW Meow Meow !!!!!

[Steve B]

I, also, was oblivious to the Tin Cat. I had seen it mentioned here a couple of times, but didn't take notice. Then I went to Ace to get some wasp traps, and saw them.

They look like a metal cigar box. They are less than one foot square and about one and a half inches thick. They are shiny galvanized metal.

They have two ramps the mice go into. Once in, they cannot come out. Having one mouse in the trap is good, because of their curiosity, the others go in there to find out what's going on. Peanut butter smeared on the floor inside, and I mean just a dab, is good enough for bait.

You don't have smashed mouse sitting there. You don't have a mouse that's caught by the tail or foot dragging the trap into the wall. You don't have to bait them, and risk snapped fingers. Kids and pets cannot get into them. They are safe. Wash them out with the garden hose. They won't rust unless you leave them laying in the mud.

If you are a humanist, they are a live trap, so you can trap all you want and keep them in a cage until the next time you go to visit your favorite relatives.

They cost about $15 per, but last a lifetime. I highly recommend them. No more of those baited spring traps for me.

Google them. Or you can find them locally at about any hardware store. Made by Victor, the same people who make all sorts of animal traps.

Steve

[dkhedmo]

Have a cat in residence, obviously not earning his keep. Mere months ago, in the apartment we lived in before buying this house, he'd go out in the woods and find mice and bring them and leave them in the driveway, after a very animated period of play. And now he lets one run rampant through he house.

-Karen-